Hello! Hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Years! I spent the holidays here with my Ecuadorian family. Was definitely not a white Christmas, rather green and rainy instead. This was my first Christmas away from home and my family, which was definitely not easy missing the big family gathering and all my family's amazing food potluck and the company. On the other hand, I really enjoyed being able to experience all the Ecuadorian traditions here for the holidays. I was able to attend a school Christmas program which was not the typical program that we'd see in the US. Very interesting to to say the least.... so back story on Ecuadorian culture. For the New Years or here as they say "el año viejo" (the old year), all over Ecuador the guys dress up as women or widows (las viudas) in very skimpy outfits and dance in the streets. They block the street and don't let cars pass unless they pay them with coins to fund their party later. Usually the viudas are standing in the middle of the street and when a car comes, there are two people on both sides of the street who hold up a rope so they can't pass while the viudas dance. And if the driver doesn't pay, las viudas will dance wildly all over the car or motorcycle and try to seduce the driver until they do pay. They often say things as "for my baby, I need money," "I using the imminent death of their husbands as an excuse for begging for money. Often times the viudas cary baby dolls around as well in their hands. Supposedly the burning of monigotes at midnight represent the husbands of the viudas. Very different traditions than in the US, and it was super fun and entertaining to experience!
So, back to the assembly, apparently it was also a New Years celebration at the school and after all the cutesy Christmas dancing, the New years celebration started and kids who were 14-18 took the floor dressed as women and essentially had a dance off and it was wild to say the least for a school assembly. Not something that would likely be permitted in US schools based off of how the kids were dancing, it was more like a drag show, which is something we would go to a bar to see, but not necessarily in a school. I asked my host brother if this was normal to happen in schools and he said yes! At one point las viudas grabbed me to come dance in front of the school with them, so if the whole town didn't already know me now they for sure do. And they danced with the mayor of the town as well, quite funny.
So, before I continue with Ecuadorian New Years celebrations, back to Christmas here! There wasn't much happening on Christmas Eve, however the tradition is to stay up until 00:00 midnight to eat dinner and open gifts. So we started cooking and making Christmas cookies around 7pm and eventually ate around 11:30pm. I made my mom's famous scalloped corn dish, mashed potatoes and my host mom made baked chicken, and we had taught them how to make sugar cookies. We opened gifts we got for each other around midnight and later watched a little bit of Home Alone as a family then went to sleep. Normally at home we'll watch Polar Express on Christmas Eve.
On Christmas day my host family and I went to my host brothers grandmas house and swam in her pool which was nice. First time I can say I got burnt on Christmas! During the day we didn't do too much but once we got home we started baking. I made banana bread, scalloped corn and mashed potatoes to share, while my other host family members made baked chicken, salad, etc. My host aunt & uncle (Ruth and Salvador) hosted the Christmas party at their house which was very nice. I'm used to big family gatherings, so it was nice to have all of the extended family together.
I have a group of really great host aunt/uncles and cousins! There was about 20 of us and after dinner we played games for prizes and passed out presents. It was a great night and it's been nice feeling a part of their family even though I couldn't spend it with my own. They really are great, not sure how I lucked out with such an amazing family!
For the New Years, I also spent the holiday here with my host family since I wanted the authentic typical Ecuadorian tradition that they would experience. My younger host brother Juanito ended up going to the beach so it was just my host mom and older host brother Kevin here. During the day, las viudas were in the street dressed up bugging the cars for
money and dancing to latino/Ecuadorian music. It was pretty funny to watch. My host mom and I went for a drive and were entertained by paying our toll to pass by the viudas on the streets. Normally you just give them 5-10 cents and they'll stop dancing and let you pass. Quite the New Years tradition! At night time there was a program in the main area of town and las viudas had a dancing competition. The guys are all dressed as women and have
choreographed dancing and the top 3 best groups win points in a part of the New Years competition which also includes another Ecuadorian NY tradition called los monigotes or los años viejos. Los Monigotes are paper maché dolls and scenes made out of cardboard that represent letting go of the current year. People use sawdust to fill the life-size handmade dolls. Some people put masks on the monigotes or they print a picture of the family members face and paste in on and they're often filled with sawdust. It's also an option that people burn dolls made of political characters or superheroes, hoping they won't be around in the new year. In my town they had a competition for the best monigote/año viejo. People often create the doll but also
make a whole scene made of creative materials surrounding the monigote. For example, one group did a año viejo of the mayor and his family taking a plane to the Galapagos Islands and another of a local food vendor.
Once Midnight hits, the families burn their monigotes and año viejos. Often times in each of the scenes of the año viejo or monigotes, there is a written testament (testamento), more like a will that the person writes for their monigote such as what they are leaving in the "old year" for their friends and family. The testamentos are meant to be funny/sarcastic and rhyme. They read it out loud for others to hear and then burn it along with the monitogte. So at midnight, I joined my family who made an año viejo and burned it and we all hugged on another. Once the fire was out we went back to the main stadium area and danced to Ecuadorian music until about 3:30 in the morning! It was a great time spent with my host family.
Outside of the holiday celebrations,
between Christmas and New Years I went on a quick spontaneous trip to do a 3 day/ 2 night trek called the Quilotoa Loop. I guess I got tired of being lazy and Netflix bingeing while snacking on Christmas goods and and decided it was time to get off my butt and be active. In order to do the Quilotoa Loop, you have to take a bus to Latacunga where you spend a night and the next day catch an early bus to the small town of Sigchos where the trek begins. Overall the trek goes from little mountain village to village. We took the route of Sigchos->Isinilví->Chugchilán->Quilotoa. I had gone solo to do the trek but met two German sisters
at my hostel the day I was starting the hike and turns out they were doing it as well, so we just all hiked together and had a great time! Turns out one of the sisters is a volunteer in Bolivia doing similar work, so it was interesting to talk about all the work opportunities and similar issues between the countries of Bolivia and Ecuador in the area of health and abuse/violence. In 3 days we trekked over 30 miles and spent about an average of 5 hours hiking each day going up and down rolling hills through the mountains across agricultural lands. It was fun seeing all the farm animals.
Lots of sheep, cows, pigs, chickens, goats, etc. Nice not having to worry about bears down here while hiking ;). The trek isn't marked super well, and even using the app maps.me and other resources the hostels gave us we still got lost at least once a day on the hike, but eventually made our way. Just minor detours minus the second day we took about a 1 hour unintentional detour, but the scenery was great so we didn't mind too much! The last day we fortunately didn't really get lost but we got poured on the last half of the day when we finally arrived to the crater of Laguna Quilotoa. It was pretty cloudy but we got a small window of clearance when we were able to see the lake and take photos, it was gorgeous.
Definitely going back sometime! My host family has never been and saw the photos and now really want to come, so I told them we can go sometime. The hike kicked my butt, the highest altitude we got was about 12,000ft so was a bit hard to breathe the last day closer to the crater lake, but felt good to burn off all the Christmas indulgences. For the overnight stays we stayed at super cute mountain hostels, my favorite being the Llullu Llama Hostel.
It was $19/night and included a large breakfast and dinner. Everyone ate together, the vibe was great and the views even better, and of course they had a St. Bernard mountain dog so of course I loved it. The second night we stayed at Hostel Cloud Forest which had a wood stove inside our room. It was definitely nice to feel semi like winter again and actually be cold for once and bundle up since it's forever hot and humid where I live. I enjoy my amazon rainforest life but an occasional change in climate is nice :)!
Lastly, this weekend I had a visit from my cousin Zac from Alaska who was down here for a wedding. It was nice to see him and his girlfriend Sara, some familiar faces. He delivered a late Christmas gift from my family back home which included my XtraTuff rain boots so I finally have them here for the rainforest (*note: it doesn't rain all day 24/7 here). I
guess while on the topic I'll answer the common question I get about the climate here. Even though it's a rainforest, it is not always raining as it may sound about the Amazon. The summer months here are August through October and the rainy rainy months are April to July. The other months of the year are in between. Since we are so close to the equator the weather doesn't change drastically. I would say it rains maybe 4 or so days per week here but when it rains it is 2-3 hours then stops. It is rarely constantly raining all day. It will then get hot and sunny or just in general be hot and humid. It's always hard coming back and adjusting after visiting the Sierra Region.
Today is my first day back at work in the Municipal Building of Arosemena Tola and working now on planning my projects for the next 3-4 months of the year. Currently hoping to plan some sort of activities with the senior center that we work with in terms of nutrition and physical health and education.
Fun Fact:
Another New Year tradition is to wear either red or yellow underwear (calzón= underwear). If you wear red you are wishing for luck with love in the new year, and yellow represents "gold,"abundance, or success in your job.
Disclaimer: “The content of this website is mine alone and does not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Government, the Peace Corps, or the Ecuadorian Government.”